We thought we were done debating Barry Trotz’s decision to sit Alexander Radulov and Andrei Kostitsyn in Games 3 and 4, but the talk isn’t going away now that we’re getting details about just how late they were out before Game 2 in Glendale.

Sports Illustrated’s Michael Farber wrote a solid piece looking into the news surrounding some of Russia (and Belarus’) finest players in the postseason and in it we get the details about Radulov and Kostitsyn’s night on the town in Arizona. Farber finds out it wasn’t quite the all-night bender it’s been made out to be (emphasis mine).

Although one team official learned about 30 minutes before Game 2 that Radulov and Kostitsyn had broken the Predators’ midnight curfew, he did not feel that it was the appropriate time to relay the news to coach Barry Trotz or general manager David Poile. Trotz learned of the indiscretion after his postgame press conference, when a reporter pulled him aside and mentioned that media members had spotted the two players out late the night before. When the Predators returned to the team hotel adjacent to Jobing.com Arena in Glendale, Trotz checked the security logs: Radulov and Kostitsyn indeed had returned around 1 a.m.

Earlier reports had Radulov and Kostitsyn rolling in much later than that and thus thoroughly justifying Trotz’s punishment for Game 3. Breaking team rules regardless of how badly you break curfew requires some kind of punishment. Oddly enough, this story from Farber jives well with Radulov’s assertion he wasn’t out that late.

The debate Predators fans and other hockey folks might get into now is whether missing curfew by an hour requires a two-game suspension.

They were only suspended (correctly) for one game. The second game was a coach’s decision, and while it might not have worked out it was certainly reasonable since Nashville played their best game of the series without the two problems in the lineup

Macnt, my thoughts exactly. I would like to root for LA (somewhat)….. But the fact is, that whiner does not deserve a Cup. (notice “Cup” is capitalized). He barely deserves a cup (not capitalized) because he gas a vagina.

There is no difference between missing curfew by 1 hour or 3. When your curfew is 12am and you get back at 1am then you’re just being selfish.

mianfr - May 12, 2012 at 1:30 PM

I also kind of figured that if you have to have some star players going out and getting hammered the night before a playoff game, you’d hope it was your native Russians, since this was basically their pre-professional lives more or less.